Mass food poisoning reported in Bến Tre

BẾN TRE — Forty-two workers of JY Vina Company, who were hospitalised at two large hospitals in the Mekong Delta’s Bến Tre Province over the weekend for alleged food poisoning, are recovering well.

On Sunday afternoon, about half of the patients left hospital for home.

A doctor of Minh Đức Hospital said these patients were first reported to experience symptoms such as dizziness, headache, nausea, breathlessness and weakness in their legs and arms.

The symptoms surfaced some 30 minutes after they ate lunch, consisting of meat-mixed sour soup, stewed pork and egg and fried green beans, at the company on Saturday.

Among the patients was a pregnant woman who was under threat of premature delivery and treated at Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Hospital.

Bến Tre Province’s Department of Food Hygiene and Safety has taken samples of the food suspected to be poisonous from the company canteen for examination at a Hồ Chí Minh City laboratory to investigate the cause.

On May 19, 39 workers of SIGMA Co Ltd in Giao Long industrial zone in the province’s Châu Thành District, were also hospitalised for suspected food poisoning. The cause of the poisoning was still unclear. — VNS